Lydia Millet on Letting the Work Change You
The Author of A Children’s Bible Talks to Jordan Kisner
This is Thresholds, a series of conversations with writers about experiences that completely turned them upside down, disoriented them in their lives, changed them, and changed how and why they wanted to write. Hosted by Jordan Kisner, author of the new essay collection, Thin Places, and brought to you by Lit Hub Radio.
On today’s episode, Jordan talks to Lydia Millet about her novel A Children’s Bible. In the conversation, Lydia talks about vulnerability, giving up cynicism or sarcasm for earnestness, and the bravery of saying what you really think and what you feel and what you get as a writer and as a person when you make that leap.
From the interview:
Lydia Millet: All of a sudden, I was more interested in communities than isolation to a degree, or at least the feeling of community, or communion maybe is a better word. I was more interested in commonality and less interested in the distinction between selves and the distinction between groups and the distinction between even species. I guess I just hadn’t thought before about how a project that I did myself would transform me or I would be able to transform internally, and I am grateful that it did. I’m grateful that you can sort of change yourself by your work and by your interest and by will. I guess I really hadn’t entertained the thought that that was possible before then.
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Original music by Lora-Faye Åshuvud and art by Kirstin Huber.
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Lydia Millet is the PEN Award-winning author of eleven works of literary fiction, including Sweet Lamb of Heaven and Magnificence, which have been New York Times Notables and Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalists. She lives in Arizona.
